Italian city to fine lovelorn ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tourists

VERONA, Italy – Lovelorn visitors flock to Verona celebrated by Shakespeare to leave the letters and messages, often using chewing gum to stick them to the brick walls of the courtyard beneath the bal

VERONA, Italy – Lovelorn visitors flock to Verona celebrated by Shakespeare to leave the letters and messages, often using chewing gum to stick them to the brick walls of the courtyard beneath the balcony.

They appeal to the Bardโ€™s fictional heroine to cast lucky spells on their love lives.

The result is an unsightly mess of hardened blobs of gum and tattered scraps of paper which deface the World Heritage-listed cityโ€™s most popular attraction, a former inn known as the Casa di Giulietta or Julietโ€™s House.

A new decree being drawn up by Verona city council will prohibit the sticking of chewing gum or adhesive Post-it notes to the walls and the consumption of food or drink in the courtyard of the house.

Writing love-struck graffiti on the walls of the courtyard and the tunnel that leads into it will also be banned, apart from on specially-provided, removable panels.

Anyone caught breaking the new rules, which will be enforced by local police, will risk a fine of up to 500 euros.

Sticking bits of chewing gum and sticky notes on the walls was โ€œhardly in keepingโ€ with such a celebrated place, said Flavio Tosi, the mayor of Verona.

โ€œWeโ€™ve decided to enact a law that will sanction anyone who indulges in this kind of behaviour.

โ€œA sign will be put up telling tourists where they are allowed to post their messages โ€” that is, on the removable panels that we have provided.โ€ The council enacted a similar decree in 2004 and succeeded in cleaning up the area for a while, but the gum stickers returned.

Verona earns a fortune from the legend of Romeo and Juliet, despite the fact that there is little evidence that the couple ever existed.

Historians say there is almost nothing to link the house to Shakespeareโ€™s tragic love story and that the celebrated balcony was constructed out of bits of a medieval sarcophagus in the 17th century.

The only shred of a connection is the fact that the house was probably once the home of the Cappello family โ€” who may have been the model for the Capulets of Romeo and Juliet.

The custom of leaving amorous entreaties or declarations, many of them addressed to the fictional Juliet, was celebrated in a recent film, ‘Letters to Julietโ€™, starring Vanessa Redgrave and the American actress Amanda Seyfried.

The film told the story of a young American tourist who stumbles on one such missive shoved behind a loose brick in the courtyard beneath Julietโ€™s balcony.

She discovers that it was written by Redgraveโ€™s character more than 50 years before, expressing regret that she left behind a handsome young Italian, Lorenzo, to return home to England.

Each year sack loads of letters addressed simply to โ€œJulietโ€™s House, Veronaโ€ arrive from around the world.

Replies are written by a team of local volunteers from the Juliet Club, who occupy an upstairs office near the courtyard.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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